[HN Gopher] How to make your own Selectric Typeballs
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How to make your own Selectric Typeballs
Author : _Microft
Score : 76 points
Date : 2023-06-20 16:18 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| aidenn0 wrote:
| Were Daisy-wheels ever used in typewriters, or was that just a
| printer thing?
| roblatham wrote:
| Back in the early 1990s I typed my papers on a Smith-Corona
| typewriter with a daisy-wheel (Smith Cornoa called them
| "printwheels" but same thing.
| phaedrus wrote:
| The rural high school I went to had these instead of computers
| until 1996 or 97.
| yetanotherloser wrote:
| Electronic ones, yes. I have a couple of AEG/Carrera ones with
| daisywheels.
| ckz wrote:
| I believe there were many daisy wheel typewriters, but I
| (correctly or incorrectly) tend to associate them with true
| electronic typewriters as opposed to electric ones. IBM
| Wheelwriters and such.
| hackermatic wrote:
| There were a lot of early typewriters that experimented with
| interchangeable type wheels, shuttles, and sleeves. Hammond
| and Blickensderfer are two of the better-known brands among
| collectors, but here's a whole list:
| https://www.officemuseum.com/typewriters_single_element.htm
| ckz wrote:
| Amazing! Isn't there also a single element one that uses an
| inverted cylinder with the type on the inside?
|
| In general, I'm discovering what a deep rabbit hole I've
| dug myself into. Last weekend I was trying to decide
| between a Corona Silent, a similar-vintage Remington I
| haven't yet identified, and an SCM Corsair. Looking for a
| nice portable contrast to a Selectric that isn't fatiguing
| to use.
|
| Edit: Re. that first point, believe I was thinking
| (somewhat backwards) of the 1878 version of the Malling-
| Hansen Writing Ball: https://www.officemuseum.com/typewrite
| rs_hansen_writing_ball...
| hackermatic wrote:
| If you're looking for a typewriter with a light touch,
| the Olivetti Lettera 32 and Underwood Universal are some
| of my favorites. I love my Remingtons, but all of mine
| (all of which are 1940s models) are pretty heavy.
| Johnny555 wrote:
| We had a Brother (I think) typewriter with a daisy wheel, it
| had a 16 character LCD panel so you could preview what you were
| typing and catch mistakes before it printed, but also had built
| in correction tape to erase mistakes. We had a couple wheels in
| different typefaces.
|
| But I still preferred the Selectrics at school, that kerchunk
| with each character typed gave it a good feel and I could type
| much more accurately than the brother where the printing was
| disconnected from the typing.
| epcoa wrote:
| They were produced by the million by Smith Corona for
| electronic typewriters and "wordprocessors" in the late
| 80s/early 90s. Those things had the worst fucking keyboards
| imaginable https://youtu.be/R2rhOUk-dsM
| weinzierl wrote:
| Yep, I had one, might still have it somewhere. Most of my
| friends had the Triumph Adler Gabriele which had a RS232 serial
| port and could be used as printer, but mine definitely did not
| and was a pure electronic typewriter without display and any
| interfaces.
| [deleted]
| neilv wrote:
| I wonder how many actuations per character it can take.
|
| The precision of the Selectric II must help with longevity, but
| the crazy-powerful feel when using one makes me wonder how much
| force is hitting the ribbon, page, and platen.
| golem14 wrote:
| To deepen the wonder, I'd be interested to see the longevity
| per material (PLA/Nylon/metal/...). I'd expect a lot of trial
| and error to deal with shrinkage and the probably high
| precision needed by the Selectric.
|
| But this is a great repository, thanks a lot!
|
| P.S. excellent short video by Bill Hammack on the Selectric
| internals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRCNenhcvpw
| idbehold wrote:
| Before opening the link I thought it was going to be something to
| generate statically typed code based on a DB schema or something.
| Fun name either way.
| 7thaccount wrote:
| https://imgur.io/a/ZZXFq#Xr17aEc
|
| If you want to see the typeball for the APL programming language.
| [deleted]
| 1MachineElf wrote:
| Nice. Theoretically, I could switch the letter placement in order
| to make the Selectric have the Dvorak layout. Would be a cool
| ornament for my keyboard display case.
| Eisenstein wrote:
| Sorry, I don't get it. DVORAK is a keyboard layout. What does
| that have to do with a typeball?
| jsimzeroone wrote:
| The idea would be that you would replace the "A" on the ball
| with the character that is in the QWERTY's A position the
| Dvorak keyboard, etc.
| 1MachineElf wrote:
| Exactly! _A_ was an ironic choice for an example, however,
| because it 's the one character in QWERTY that's got
| identical placement on Dvorak.
| gmueckl wrote:
| Keys are mapped to specific locations on the typeball. When
| you rearrange the letters on the typeball you remap the
| mapping between keys and the actual letters that get printed.
| So you get a different effective keyboard layout.
| blockwriter wrote:
| Does anyone know a reliable source for purchasing Selectric II
| typewriters that are in good working condition? I worked on a
| Selectric II while working on a novel, and I am nostalgic for it
| and want it to write letters to friends.
| hackermatic wrote:
| Many larger cities still have one or two typewriter repair
| shops, or business machine shops that handle electric
| typewriters! You can also ask on the GolfballTypewriterShop
| group on Facebook.
| zbrozek wrote:
| There's one in the closet of my childhood bedroom in Kentucky.
| bombcar wrote:
| They're pretty common on eBay and some offer local pickup
| (they're heavy!) so you could verify it works before buying.
| timcobb wrote:
| We had a couple of these when I was a young child. I wish I still
| had them... they were awesome.
| zwieback wrote:
| Me too, I think my parents still have their Selectric at the
| ready in their study. My mom used to fill out carbon-copy forms
| a lot on this thing and my dad wrote a book on it. It's a rock-
| solid machine.
| TradingPlaces wrote:
| The Selectric remains the world's best feeling keyboard.
| meepmorp wrote:
| It's what I've internally compared every keyboard to ever
| since; I also miss the hum.
| ignite wrote:
| You are correct, but bear in mind how much those keyboards
| cost. This is why you don't see their equivalent today.
| neilv wrote:
| Does anyone have a method for sustainable supply of Selectric II
| ribbons?
|
| The Selectric II ribbons that I saw weren't like the inked-cloth
| used by most typewriters and dot-matrix printers -- which could
| be reused a few times, or even re-inked with a special tool. The
| Selectric II ribbons were more like a plastic film with a black
| coating that was crisply and completely transferred to the paper
| where the typeball struck it. (Not great for OPSEC,
| incidentally.)
| ravetcofx wrote:
| Amazon? https://www.amazon.ca/IBM-Selectric-Typewriter-Ribbon-
| Correc...
| [deleted]
| MisterTea wrote:
| Those were called correctable ribbons. Our old Juki 6100 daisy
| wheel printer used them.
| ckz wrote:
| A common supplier for typewriters in general is Ribbons
| Unlimited: https://www.ribbonsunlimited.com/
|
| The carbon film you're referring to is likely part #1299095
| (black correctable). Believe generics of these are still made.
| I also buy NOS sometimes. So far the 30-40yo cartridges seem to
| work fine once you get to the spooled film vs the few inches
| that may have been exposed to the elements. Not sure if the
| chemistry of them is just that stable (vs ink ribbons) or I've
| simply had good luck (i.e. I'm not speaking from 40 years of
| experience or anything).
|
| The tougher one to source is the "bicycle" style of cartridge
| used on some Selectric IIIs (other IIIs were built/swapped to
| work with the old II-style carts).
| kamranjon wrote:
| fwiw just got a couple of bicycle style cartridges delivered
| from ribbons unlimited, along with some correcting tape, and
| they both work great.
| akavel wrote:
| Piggy-backing on this thread: does anyone know of any open-
| hardware computer printer you can DIY at home? (Ideally not using
| any pre-made ink/etc. cartridges; can be a dot-matrix or even
| Selectric/daisy-wheel printer.)
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